Arlo Siemsen - Electronics expert for U of M Solar Car
Arlo Siemsen gave a talk on the University of Minnesota Solar Vehicle Project. The solar car is designed and built by U of M undergraduates at an approximate cost of $250,000. With many funds donated by local companies.
On October 15, 2013 the vehicle completed the 3,000 kilometer 2013 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge in Australia. It placed 4th in the Cruiser class. Less than 50% of all teams completed the race under their own power.
Fun fact: U of MN DEHS employee David Paulu is a former member of a past U of M Solar Car team.
Minnesota has two nuclear powered reactors located at Monticello and Prairie Island. The Prairie Island reactor is a pressurized water reactor and the Monticello reactor is a boiling water reactor. The reactors each have triple containment to reduce the possibility of radioactive release to the environment.
After a confirmed release of radioactive material, individuals within 10 miles of a reactor or are down wind of a nuclear release need to pick up potassium iodide at Target Pharmacy.
Lessons learned from setting up a 1,200 bed ACS site in 2011 at River Center:
Arm badges don't work well. They are not visible. They slide down the arms. Vests or lanyards work better.
When setting up a cot secure the latch back or someone may fall out of it.
Triage areas can be a bottleneck and must be designed to get people processed promptly.
Communication can be difficult- The battery strength on two way radios will decay over time. The use time on the battery dropped to less than 1/2 hour. They resorted to megaphones and then yelling when the batteries on the megaphones died.
Need personnel who are focused on problem solving and not focused on the sky is falling.
Before moving supplies in a mobile lab unit make sure items are latched and secured properly.
Developing a good system for keeping track of people when they are sent off site for treatment is critical.
Need security for pharmacy.
Resources:
They have buses available to transport patients either in a seated position or a horizontal position.
There is a mobile 8 bead emergency room available on 48 hour notice. It must be placed in a parking lot or other flat surface area as it needs to be stable. The semi is driven 150 miles a month and maintained by a local technical school.
Minnesota is a leader in taking care of companion animals.
The central Minnesota response team has had recent experience responding to large flood events and was a valuable resource for responders in other parts of the state.
US oil production bottomed out in 2008 but has now increased due to a process known as fracking. The deep (2-4 mile) horizontal wells allow extraction of crude oil and natural gas in areas previously unavailable for removal. Currently, there are approximately 80,000 fracking wells in the US. The map above shows the available shale plays with deposits of oil and natural gas. Fracking operations will also be increasing around the world.
While fracking does not occur in Minnesota, the state along with Wisconsin does provide very high quality sand used in the fracking process. The uniform spheres are the best proppant available to allow for gas and oil to be removed from the horizontal fractures in the well.
The water use in a fracking well is heavy. One fracking well will use the amount of water needed to fill ten Olympic sized swimming pools. The water is injected then removed from the well and placed in settling ponds. Most fracking operations attempt to recycle the water using chemical treatment and filtration.
Dr. Wackett's group has been experimenting with bacteria that breakdown a broad spectrum of chemicals commonly found as contaminants in fracking water. Instead of just adding the bacteria to the solution, the bacteria are encased in permeable silica mesh or silica filters. The bacteria mobility is restricted and they do not reproduce but instead digest the chemicals. In 20 minutes a bacteria can digest a chemical mass equivalent weight of the bacteria. He is looking to develop at least four types of bacteria to breakdown several classes of chemicals including benzene, alkanes, alcohols and polycyclic aromatic compounds.
At present, a similar process has been commercially used to breakdown Atrazine for water treatment in Iowa. The researchers have been attempting to interest companies in field studies to take the experiment out of the laboratory. His lab maintains the Biocatalysis/Biodegredation Database to assist others interested in biodegredation.
Parker Abbot's Summary of a previous lecture by Dr. Wackett on Fracking
Dr. Wacket's lab has also developed an enzyme test for detecting melamine
